Of Moths, Mini-beasts and Mapping

After what seems like ages since there was a large collection of moths found in the moth trap, the number of moths found this morning suggested that the decision to put out the trap last night was the right one.  Despite the overnight rain, there were that many around the trap to be caught that it took nearly 30 minutes before the contents of the trap could be examined.  There will be more detail on this in tomorrow's blog.

Meanwhile, the reserve was playing host to groups from Wavell Junior School and Risedale School.  Pond dipping proved very popular with the Wavell School group, as one of their three activities during the day.  The afternoon session was spent around the Outdoor Classroom looking for bugs and creepy crawlies as part of their hunt for mini-beasts.

Clearly, they all enjoyed themselves and we will be getting another visit from Wavell Junior School next Wednesday.  Meanwhile, the small group from Risedale School were having a walk around to introduce them to the habitats on the reserve.  We are looking at having them here every Wednesday to do practical work to help manage the reserve, as well as doing some of the activities.

Thanks must go to some of the Wavell Junior School staff who helped tidy up the Field Centre's Activity Room to make it ready for the next group to move in. 

This was the Defence Infrastructure Organisation's (DIO) Business Intelligence Team who used the room to work on how they deliver digital mapping for the Army.  However, before they got down to the detail, they played a sophisticated version of 'hide and seek' with an exercise in geo-caching, where objects were put out and their locations tagged.  These were then found using satellite technology to find the co-ordinates for the locations.

With all this going on, the more eagle-eyed had spotted that one of the finger posts had a sign that was drooping, so Ian spent a few minutes re-attaching it so that it is now back pointing horizontally.

The day is not yet finished.  While volunteers continue to go out to survey nest boxes, the last group of the day to visit Foxglove this evening will be from Leyburn Brownies.